LAYNG.com: Writing. Music. Roads.

L A Y N G

On the road in the American West.
Writing, making videos and music, and having the adventure of a lifetime.

DRIFT

go somewhere

// on the road

The Sprinter van parked beside a wooden tent platform at a Ridgway, Colorado campground, a portable table and stool set up on the deck at dusk.

Late night soaking at Orvis Hot Springs, finally reaching Telluride after six weeks of waiting packages, and a wooden platform at camp that fits the van perfectly. On Substack now.

→ chasingthebutter.substack.com

Layng walking down a dirt mountain road above treeline, snow-capped peaks and a green valley behind him.

One Month: Jacob Lake to the Million Dollar Highway

A full recap of the last month on the road: songs, stories, games, and everything that came out of the van. On Substack now.

→ read on substack

The Sprinter parked at a scenic pulloff past Page, Arizona. Red rock canyon walls and desert scrub under a clear blue sky.

May 28, 2026 · Page, Arizona

Habit stacking as a method, a 30-second video experiment, and a lucky ticket to Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. Rolling toward Durango.

Sitting by a campfire at the edge of the Grand Canyon, string lights overhead, canyon stretching to the horizon.

May 26, 2026 · North Rim, Arizona

The Ancient Television

4% battery, a campfire over the canyon, 26 nights since resupply, and a realization about creative infrastructure that's still working on me.

// interviews

Aerial drone shot looking down at Layng standing between solar panels beside his Sprinter van, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

LAYNG: On Nomadic Life

Nine questions on life as a nomad in the American West. June 4, 2026 · Silverton, Colorado.

// latest video

The #1 Worst Thing about Van Life

Chasing the Butter · 2026

// music

// hi-fi lonesome sound system

Hi-Fi Lonesome, Season Two

New music created in the spirit of 1960s country LPs.

Driftin'

Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026

A Quiet Fortune

Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026

Let's Roll

Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026

What a Time

Chasing the Butter · 2026

▶ open the player

// field guides

Interactive guides to the places and topics on the road. Trekking Poles. San Juan Mountains. Marmots. More on the way.

You just got new poles. Adjustable, cork grips, the kind serious hikers actually carry. Here's what's actually happening with every step: the physics, the failure points, and the one thing almost everyone gets backwards.

SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS

You're standing on the remains of the largest volcanic eruption Earth has seen in 440 million years. The geology, the rivers, the wildlife, the history of who named what and why.

You saw one on the trail. It whistled and disappeared. Here's what it actually is, how it hibernates for 8 months, and why it may age only half as fast as the calendar suggests.

// rabbit holes

Essays on intelligence, effort, creativity, and the practice of making things.

A glowing tablet displaying analytics data lies abandoned on a desert roadside at sunset, Monument Valley mesas silhouetted against an orange sky.

THE SAME PRESSURE

The algorithm is just the latest costume. On the pressure that never gives a command, the correction that always finds its way home, and what continuity actually means.

A man chopping wood outside a farmhouse, a steaming pot beside him

CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER

On the two kinds of people you already know, and the singular pattern that explains the gap between them. It's not discipline. It's something simpler and harder to name.

Grocery store shelf

OPTIMIZED AGAINST YOU

Three essays on the gap between what the label implies and what's actually happening inside your body. Gum. Seed oils. Private equity. Systems that were never designed with you in mind.

// games

Word games, strategy games, party games. SIGNAL, REVERSI, PARKS, PEEING OR NOT PEEING, and more.